MummyNomics: FREE Groceries

The combination of returning to work part-time and having another human to clothe, feed and entertain means money is tight, which means I’m constantly on the look out for savvy savings and mummy money making schemes – my MummyNomics (Mummy Economics).

Groceries are a weird one, right? Food is one of life’s necessities. Food is also delicious and makes us feel great. But shopping for food? Not so much fun. Paying for food? Eek! It’s probably our second biggest expense after our mortgage each month. So anything that makes grocery shopping more fun and more affordable is good for me (and you!)…

Ladies and gentlemen I introduce to you the Shopmium app. In the past 12 months I have enjoyed over £30 worth of free shopping by using this app – everything from baby food, toddler meals, snacks, flavoured water, hair products, frozen roast potatoes. The app is super-easy to use and makes shopping fun too!

So, Shopmium basically gives you the opportunity to trial products for free or with substantial discounts. You download the app to your phone, register your details (don’t forget to use my referral code of KHKFUEFQ to get yourself a freebie (often a Lindt chocolate bar)) and then check the app before you go shopping (or, if you’re disorganised, like me, when you’re in store).

Offers are arranged in easy to navigate categories, which vary depending on the offers available at that time, at present I have – ‘All offers’, ‘Featured’ and ‘Baby & Toddler’. Browse the offers and click for more details. Sometimes you’re invited to watch a short commercial for the product, but I always skip these – sorry advertisers!

Shopmium works on a cashback basis. So you buy the product first and then get cashback paid once you’ve shown Shopmium your proof of purchase.

Once you’ve accessed the details of the offer you can see whether the item is free, or discounted and also check out where the offer is available (some are exclusive to certain retailers).

Once you’ve found an offer that’s for you, you just need to find the product in your supermarket. This has led to some very amusing scavenger hunts for me and Elliott (free shopping and free entertainment for a toddler – surely a win, win – right?). Then use the handy barcode checker to make sure the item is included.

Then, pay for your item as normal with the rest of your groceries but make sure you keep hold of the receipt.

When you get home access the app again and select ‘request my cashback’ on the offer then scan the product bar code again and take a photo of the receipt to upload to the app. This will then send this information off to Shopmium to be verified and as soon as they have done this (this generally takes 24-48 hours in total) your cashback claim will be accepted and the money will be credited back to your bank account details that you input when you signed up for your account. Simples!

Granted, as these are product trials they are likely to be things in addition to your normal shop, so you will probably still have to fork out the same amount for your weekly shop. But Shopmium does mean you can have some lovely luxuries on top of your normal shop for nothing! There are regularly reduced offers for beer and wine if that’s your thing. The free snacks are amazing and there were even some Little Dish toddler meals up for grabs a few weeks back.

I really love the Shopmium app. It makes me feel like I’m treating myself when I’m not really spending anything and adds some fun to the dreaded Friday top-up shop.